Askews Legal LLP can assist you if you are a victim of domestic abuse and violence and sometimes where your child is a victim of domestic violence. We can help you apply to a Court for an injunction/protective measures.

The Court offers protection to the victims of domestic violence, harassment, pestering or intimidation in circumstances where the perpetrator was associated to them. This could include circumstances where:

The victim and perpetrator were married, are married, are engaged or have been engaged and civil partners

They live or used to live together

They are parents of a child

An associated person could also include a brother and sister, mother and father or other extended family members who have lived in the same household as the victim

The Court can grant various injunctions and/or protective measures such as:

A Non-Molestation Order to prevent violence, threats of violence or harassing and pestering and molesting behaviour;

An Occupation Order

A Non-Molestation Order can be made for a defined period of time or until further order of the Court and the Court will automatically attach powers of arrest.

An Occupation Order will exclude someone from the former family home, zone the family home or prevent an associated person from coming within a specified distance of it. The Court can also attach powers of arrest to an Occupation Order in certain circumstances. Where injunction Orders are made, the police can make an arrest if they have reasonable cause to suspect that there is a breach of any of the aforementioned orders.

In addition to orders there are Undertakings (promises to the court) that can be made to protect a victim.

Any person found to be in breach of a non-molestation order made by a family court will be guilty of contempt of Court and can be sent to prison. Breaching a non-molestation order is a criminal offence for which the person breaching the order will result in them gaining a conviction and consequently a criminal record.